Is this a joke? Or is this just a way for the gods to torture some of us…who don’t feel obliged to follow “partisan allegiance.” Whatever the fuck that is…seriously this is a term used on a Hot Air site which I cannot link to, you know, for the sake of trolls and suck. (Oops, I mean such.)

If you want to look for the link, it is on Hot Air Quotes of the Day, 2.3.15:

What’s even more dangerous is politicizing the debate over vaccines. Comments by Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey calling for “balance” in the vaccine debate after President Obama said Americans should “get your kids vaccinated” could have a similarly perverse effect, turning a public health issue into a matter of partisan allegiance…

Layla was born extremely premature, and because of her low birth weight and underdeveloped lungs, her immune system was not up to par for years. She got sick more easily and more drastically than other children. The first two years of her life were filled with too many emergency room visits, doctors, shots, antibiotics and other medical interventions.

She was at such risk, in fact, that our pediatrician recommend that we keep her out of daycare and away from groups of children for as long as possible, so we cared for her at home for two years – a luxury we could afford but many other families cannot. But every time she played with a child at the park or a doctor’s waiting room, I was terrified.

So when I read quotes from parents denying any social responsibility to vaccinatesaying things like, “My child is pure … It’s not my responsibility to be protecting their child,” it makes me livid. Where once we said “it takes a village”, these days some people don’t care if the village burns to the ground so long as their precious snowflake is left standing.

Emphasis mine, btw.

What kind of mentality must you have to thinklike this?

It is the same kind of mindset that brings on these gems of wisdom and knowledge from the mouths of idiots:

he said the state doesn’t own the children, the parents own the children. Just in case you were wondering, this wasn’t some out-of-the-blue thing. The idea behind Paul’s utterance goes all the way back to the King of Asshole Libertarians himself, Murray Rothbard.

North Carolina’s newbie Sen. Thom Tillis is a damned fine Republican. You can tell because of how much he hates government regulation of any kind, because that is just the government murdering freedom.

Forcing companies to follow Basic Rules of Hygiene, for example, like making employees wash their hands before serving food? He told a delightful story about explaining to some poor constituent who no doubt took a bleach bath after their encounter about how that’s one of those unnecessary regulations that really should be left up to the Great And All-Knowing Free Market:

I don’t have any problem with Starbucks if they choose to opt out of this policy as long as they post a sign that says “We don’t require our employees to wash their hands after leaving the restroom.”

Cool story, bro. But it really helps to illustrate where today’s Republican Party is, which is in the toilet, not washing its hands because freedom.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer are currently embroiled in a controversy that has them under such intense fire in both countries that even Fox News is siding with Obama against them.

Dermer had arranged, with House Speaker John Boehner, for Netanyahu to visit the US in March, without the knowledge or approval of the White House, and give a speech to Congress that is widely expected to bash President Obama’s Iran talks and to endorse negotiations-killing sanctions. It is a major break with diplomatic protocol, and gives the strong impression that Netanyahu is picking sides in domestic American politics — against Obama.

So Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer, having damaged the US-Israel alliance that is his job to safeguard and that is crucial to his nation’s security, and drawn heavy criticism in both the US and Israel, decided that Super Bowl Sunday would be a great opportunity to make a joke about it:

Hilarious!

Just to be clear about this, Dermer is jokingly calling attention to the fact that he appears to be working to undermine the sitting president of Israel’s most important ally. He’s making a funny about how his plot to gin up a little short-term political support for Netanyahu has blown up in his face, harming not just his boss’s political chances but the very alliance that is his primary responsibility. It’s funny stuff.

The Supreme Court has declined to overturn a lower court’s ruling that an insurance company was within bounds when it fired a breastfeeding mother. The woman’s suit was dismissed by the Eighth Circuit Court on the grounds that firing a woman for breastfeeding isn’t sexist because men can lactate, too.

The ACLU’s Galen Sherwin wrote Monday that former Nationwide Insurance Company employee Angela Ames sued her employer when she returned from maternity leave to find that no allowances had been made to enable her to pump breast milk for her baby during the day.

When Ames asked her supervisor for accommodations that would enable her to express milk and store it for her child, the supervisor reportedly responded that Ames should “go home and be with your babies” instead. That supervisor went on to dictate a letter of resignation to Ames that day, effectively forcing her to resign.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Nationwide and the Eighth Circuit Court, denying Ames’ petition for a review of her case’s dismissal. The trial court’s decision — which the Circuit Court upheld — said that for Nationwide’s firing of Ames for taking time to express milk at work could not have been sexist because under certain circumstances, some men can lactate, too.

Say what???????????

“The court’s reasoning in this case echoes old Supreme Court pronouncements that discriminating against pregnant women at work isn’t sex discrimination because both men and women can be non-pregnant,” Sherwin wrote. “Congress long ago rejected this ridiculous reasoning when it passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. It’s disheartening to see it resurface again.”

Again I ask, Why?

Now, as I write this post, my brother is being taken away in an ambulance to the Emergency Room. Damn. I feel like we need to set up camp in the ER lately. The rest of the post will be in dump format. (Key word being dump…ha.) (Sorry, I can’t help it…)

While its author, Harper Lee, is notoriously reclusive, the 88-year-old waged a public court battle in recent years claiming her agent essentially stole the copyright for her Pulitzer Prize-winning book about racial injustice in the South.

Her 2013 lawsuit against her former agent, Samuel Pinkus, has since been settled, but the complaint seems relevant today. If the allegations are true, it’s a cautionary tale for aging artists whose agents might take advantage of them even though they’re supposed to be acting on their behalf.

John “Hoppy” Hopkins was one of the most charismatic and influential figures in the London counterculture he helped establish during the 1960s. Through his early association with Pink Floyd and his work as a photojournalist and political activist, he became known as the “King of the Underground”.

He helped establish the International Times, or IT, which became the voice of the hippie movement. He set up the London Free School, established the UFO psychedelic club and promoted the legendary 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, a climactic event of the 1967 Summer of Love. But his clashes with the Establishment made him a target for the authorities. Although he espoused the drug culture, he recognised its dangers and was more interested in encouraging others to “turn on” by fulfilling their artistic potential. It was in the latter role that he would be described as “inspirational”.

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48 Comments on “Wednesday Reads: Why?”

The post is quite a downer I know, but it must somehow reflect my emotional state right now. My brother is still in theER and now my dad and son are coming with the same symptoms

That decapitation article is strange I remembered in my French Revolution class in college the professor talking about people who were executed by the guillotine that still blink their eyes and looked around after losing their heads. Anyway, just reminded me of that…

I am very confused about the ruling concerning the woman not allowed to take the time to use the breast pump at work. If I was the lady I would have simply brought a cooler & breast pump into work, pumped my breast at my work space and dared the SOB’s to fire me. There are labor laws concerning break accommodations and health accommodations, so why couldn’t this woman be accommodated through that process? I am bewildered as to why every woman in the office didn’t rise up against this blatant exhibition of gender discrimination. And where are the christianists in this discussion. These are the people who think women should forgo birth control and put their reproductive systems in the “hands of god”. So doesn’t “god” want this woman to express her breast milk so her baby can be fed? And the “men can lactate too” argument makes no sense. I’ve never seen, nor heard of a man nursing a baby, not even as a wet nurse. If there are a few, it’s an anomaly, not a normality. I would have thought the court would have wanted some sort of scientific evidence of what percentage of men need to express their mammary glands at work. Granted I’ve known a lot of men who have great big breasts that look like they should be able to nurse. I have a neighbor who flaunts his big bosom every summer while working in his yard. If I decided to do the same I’d be arrested and put in jail, because everyone knows that my bosom and his bosom are different. My breasts are a “temptation” even though they are ancient, but his breasts are just man boobs. IMHO, this is more about the bosses and the male cultures perception of what the purpose of women’s breast are and what the purpose of women should be in society, than anything else.

Hmmmmmmm!!!!! Rand Paul on Tuesday, defending his anti-vaxx comments from the previous day said, “The state doesn’t own your children,” he said in his exchange with Kelly Evans, the CNBC presenter. “Parents own the children, and it is an issue of freedom”.

I can’t wait to see this guy in debates. We can pop some popcorn and really enjoy this.

And a lot of Christianity looks at women as subservient to men, which is basically declaring that women are the property of men. Women are told to “surrender” to the authority of their husbands. Of course they try to soft-sell it by saying Women are to be treated with “respect” by their husbands, but how in the hell can you believe that your wife should “obey” you and respect her at the same time. Goddam it’s the 1950’s all over again!!!!

I realize after reading the article that they had a room where she could pump her breasts but she had not completed the proper requests to use the room. WTF??? That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Again, she should have gone ahead and pumped her breast at her desk and dared them to fire her.

Off topic, but interesting…..Alabama Public Services Commissioner just can’t pass up a chance to rail against everything he hates about the Federal Government, especially teh dangerous gay who may be getting married in Alabama as soon as February 9th. And notice near the end how he brags on the State of Alabama. I live about 50 miles from the Alabama border. I go there to fish from time to time and I can tell you Alabama has nothing much to brag about. This guy needs to just STFU and tend to his job of regulating utilities and resources. I wonder if the black woman, in front of the speakers podium, who looks to be recording notes of the meeting, is feeling uncomfortable with the commissioners speech?

The irony of this commissioner is that he receives USDA Subsidies for his farming properties of $442,000. I suppose that’s different though because he’s a white, christian, heterosexual, male from privilege.

I didn’t read the beheading article (see, Salon, it is possible to look away!) but I recall from growing up on a small farm that a chicken with its head cut off can still run around the chickenyard for a short time.

As regular as the seasons, some lawmakers from the Tri-Cities and Spokane want to split The Evergreen State in two, making one dry state east of the mountains and one wet state west. They’re weary of our liberal ways and they demand, oddly, “equality in funding for state programs and infrastructure.”

“I think it’s great because the tax dollars should stay over here on our side of the mountains,” a local resident told a Pasco TV station, approving of the east-west breakup.

It never ceases to boggle how parts of the state or the country most propped up with government help are the least able to acknowledge it. In this state, King County [western WA state] generates far more in tax revenues than it gets back in state services — to the tune of $2 billion per year, according to state finance data. We export that money to needier “recipient counties,” mostly on the dry side.

In a tweet, Hillary Rodham Clinton took a jab at Christie and Paul, noting, “The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let’s protect all our kids. #GrandmothersKnowBest.”

Rand Paul trying to walk back his anti-vax message is such a farce. He spends the first half of every day retracting what he said in the second half of the previous day. The farther he goes down the path of GOP POTUS candidacy the more he will be scrutinized and I don’t think he will hold up well to scrutiny. This guy has a history that mirrors that of his father and while he will have a small contingent of people who will walk on fire to get him the nomination, he will, at some point, fall onto his own sword because that’s what he does. His ongoing inability to reign in his off the cuff, poorly reasoned comments, his history of comments concerning the Civil Rights act, his penchant for bullshitting, his dalliance with plagiarism are his fatal flaws. I can’t even imagine what sort of ego drives this man, but I’m sure Chris Christie can. The 2016 GOP Clown Car is going to be so entertaining.

Ralph, I went to search for the video where he said “he had seen lots of kids suffering from mental illnesses, from having had the vaccine. Guess what, it’s scrubbed, and I can’t find one. The asshole has cleaned his website, etc. I can only hope that during the upcoming debate, that Grandma has a copy, and she will let it resurface for everyone to see the real ass that he is. Christy is no better. They get away with this crap by saying, and using expressions like “I’ve been told, I heard”, that kind of crap. No one ever says a word about this tactic, never calls them on it, but our girl Hillary will.

…
That is why I am proposing that the FCC use its Title II authority to implement and enforce open internet protections.

Using this authority, I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC. These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services. I propose to fully apply—for the first time ever—those bright-line rules to mobile broadband. My proposal assures the rights of internet users to go where they want, when they want, and the rights of innovators to introduce new products without asking anyone’s permission.

All of this can be accomplished while encouraging investment in broadband networks. To preserve incentives for broadband operators to invest in their networks, my proposal will modernize Title II, tailoring it for the 21st century, in order to provide returns necessary to construct competitive networks. For example, there will be no rate regulation, no tariffs, no last-mile unbundling. Over the last 21 years, the wireless industry has invested almost $300 billion under similar rules, proving that modernized Title II regulation can encourage investment and competition.
…

Some reporter needs to corner this charlatan and make him point to specific cases that can unequivocally be linked to a vaccine. I know vaccines come with some warnings and precautions, but I don’t believe this guy can point to childhood immunizations as the cause of “profound” mental disorders.

Thanks Mouse……….Where did he HEAR about these cases? They use to walk and talk, but after the vaccine, they were in a stupor, and paralyzed, and had schizophrenic personalities? Did they grow two heads? As a doctor, and he heard this, did he report this horrible outbreak to our Public Health Agency? To the newspapers? Wouldn’t there be a record of this, wouldn’t a hospital have a record, how about the schools, wouldn’t they have a record. How about the March of Dimes, someone should have been notified. When and where did he hear about this. What did you do about it, since you were sure it was due to having the measles vaccine, what did you do to bring to this the attention of the community?

He’s more likely to have HEARD about a rash, a sore throat, eyes and ears problem, but serious mental illness outbreaks, should have been reported to the Public Health Agency. Since he didn’t observe anyone, doesn’t allow him to get away with not reporting the
serious conditions children were experiencing. I’ve report situations that I did not observe, but over heard adults talking about it, and asked the necessary agencies to follow up and get to the bottom of the issues.

There’s a special vaccine reporting process that was set up many years ago to track reactions to see if any dangerous trends emerge. Rand Paul is full of BS.

The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a national vaccine safety surveillance program co-sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). VAERS is a post-marketing safety surveillance program, collecting information about adverse events (possible side effects) that occur after the administration of vaccines licensed for use in the United States.

VAERS provides a nationwide mechanism by which adverse events following immunization may be reported, analyzed, and made available to the public. VAERS also provides a vehicle for disseminating vaccine safety-related information to parents and guardians, health care providers, vaccine manufacturers, state vaccine programs, and other constituencies.

Norovirus is raging through college campuses here in Va. One small college of about 1000 students had to shut down for a few days because 300 students got it. The new report today seemed to indicate it’s jumping from college campus to college campus. It roared through our household a few years ago. Crazy contagious and hits you hard and fast. Hope you feel better. Stay hydrated and see if someone can bring you some popsicles. It was the only way we managed to stave off dehydration because you can’t hold anything down, as you know.

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The Sky Dancing banner headline uses a snippet from a work by artist Tashi Mannox called 'Rainbow Study'. The work is described as a" study of typical Tibetan rainbow clouds, that feature in Thanka painting, temple decoration and silk brocades". dakinikat was immediately drawn to the image when trying to find stylized Tibetan Clouds to represent Sky Dancing. It is probably because Tashi's practice is similar to her own. His updated take on the clouds that fill the collection of traditional thankas is quite special.

You can find his work at his website by clicking on his logo below. He is also a calligraphy artist that uses important vajrayana syllables. We encourage you to visit his on line studio.